Our first activity in Austria was to go on a little hike up the mountain behind the house. The neighbour had advised us that it would be around 2 hours and there was a nice hut to have lunch up there, so it sounded like a nice thing to do before lunch.
Jacody and Liam both found some walking sticks and were ready to spring into action. Here you can see he is still smiling since he does not really understand how much walking we are planning to do or just how steep it is to walk up a mountain…
This was also the first hike I would have carrying Henrik the fun-bundle on my back. The pack and Henrik together weighed around 12kg, which I fairly quickly learned can feel like about 500kg when you are half way up trail. I was going to become considerably more fit on this vacation based purely on my increased Henrik-carrying. I also had a nice walking stick that I had acquired on an earlier vacation in Switzerland. Cherie was the designated drink and snack carrier for most of the treks. This photo was also taken pretty early in the outing before we were too pooped.
It was a pretty nice walk, about 2.5km with 400m vertical. Quite a few nice views and nice things to see as we went along such as this little waterfall. Of course as soon as the kids saw any water they were right in there goofing around. I think this picture was taken about 2 seconds before at least one kid stepped right in there and soaked their shoes.
As promised, the top of the trail had a nice Alm where we wanted to stop for lunch. We were pretty tired since it was the first hike and none of us are in terrific condition. I think all of our minds and wills were far better prepared than our bodies. There was little question that we all wanted to do some nice big hikes, but the reality was that we were pooped and sweaty by the time we reached this hut. Definitely all of us were very ready for a nice lunch and cold refreshments.
The kids all got Apfelschorle (sparkling apple juice) and the adults all enjoyed a nice refreshing Radler. This particular one was pretty heavy on the lemonade portion of the drink and was almost pop-sticky. It was very tasty, but I think I have had more refreshing ones. I almost needed a water afterwards to wash the sugary stickyness out of my mouth.
We also had typical hut lunches, lots of sausages, cheese and bread. I think I had Weissewurst, but it was Jacody who ordered the best dish. He had a big board with basically one of everything on it, bread, sausage, leberkaese, cheese… He could not manage more than about half of it, but lucky for him Mike was there to pick up the slack.
We rested and ate for about an hour up there since is was so nice. The weather was hot and sunny and there was a brief discussion if we should keep hiking up the mountain to the top (+1 hour more) or head back down and go to the lake for a swim. Sore legs and sweaty hikers determined the lake would be a nicer way to spend the afternoon.
The kids of course had a good time and I think they also enjoyed having lunch high up with a nice overview of the valley.
Henrik was the best passenger possible. The wee man did not complain at all about being cooped up in the backpack for hours at a time and amused himself with special Henrik-singing, Henrik-pointing, and of course Henrik-poking-papa-in-his-head. Here he is enjoying some non-pack time with mama after he had his lunch treats.
Finishing off with a couple more of the view up and down the valley. You can see the lake in the second photo, which is where we headed to swim and relax in the afternoon. A very nice first day warm up hike.
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